Sound energy

Sound is  a form of energy that enables us to hear.

It is caused by vibration of objects

Properties of sound

Pitch is the highness or lowness of sound.

Volume is the loudness or softness of sound

Sound travels fastest in solids, followed by liquids and lowest in gases.

Sound does not travel in vacuum (empty space)

Ways of producing sound

By hitting or beating a drum

The volume of the drum is determined by how hard one hits the drum

The pitch of the drum is determined by

(i) Tension of the skin: the higher the tension, the higher the pitch

(ii) Size of the drum: small drums have high pitches than big drums

Plucking like in guitars

Volume is determined by how strong one plucks the string

The pitch of the drum is determined by

(i) Tension of the string: the higher the tension, the higher the pitch

(ii) Size of the size of the string: the smaller the string the higher the high pitches

(iii) Length of the string: shorter strings give higher pitch.

For instance in in guitar below string E has the highest pitch and A has the lowest pitch.

Blowing such as blowing a trumpet, horn, bottles with water and flute

When blown, A produces the highest pitch of sound

Clapping hand

Playing piano

Importance of sound

Sound and instruments in communication. Examples of special sounds are:

• Hooting – a car hoots to mean move out of the way.
• Ambulance siren – this generally means move out of the road and let the ambulance pass. There is an
• Screaming – this means something dangerous or exciting is happening.
• Ringing of a bell – this means that you are being alerted or reminded that something you are aware of is At school it means it is time to change from one lesson to another. In offices it may mean fire.
• Fire engine siren – the siren means that there is need to move out of the way and let the fire engine proceed to where fire or danger might be. It also means an emergency.

Echo

Is reflected sound

How to reduce echoes in a hall

• Use of blanket on the walls
• Putting ceiling boards
• Thick carpet
• curtains

Means of storing sound

• Writing solfa notation
• On devices like memory disc, flush disk, compact disc
• computer

Pollution from sound

Loud sound such as loud music, shouting, industrial noise and screaming irritate the ears of the receiver.

For revision Question download PDF

Sound energy-upper primary

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Compiled by Dr. Bbosa Science +256 778 633 682

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